


"Why didn't it work out between us?"

by laurelashes



Series: Weasleys [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Battle of Hogwarts, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, M/M, Not Epilogue Compliant, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Pre-Battle of Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22832536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurelashes/pseuds/laurelashes
Summary: Percy Weasley is fourteen when he realises he has a crush on his dormmate.
Relationships: Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood
Series: Weasleys [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1641370
Comments: 3
Kudos: 175





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: English is not my native language, you can totally expect this to be somewhat badly written.

Percy Weasley is fourteen when he realises that he enjoys looking at other boys. One of his dormmates in particular. 

He does feel a bit guilty about it. 

'As long as you don't act on it, everything is fine,' he tells himself every time he goes out of his way to be in the same space as Oliver Wood. 

... 

Percy Weasley is fifteen when he finds out he has been appointed a prefect. 

It's a very convenient excuse to finally show up for quidditch matches. 

Oliver Wood becomes the quidditch team captain. 

They start talking more about things that aren't homework. Students going to practice during study time or representing Gryffindor properly in important school events. 

... 

Percy Weasley is sixteen when he finds out Oliver Wood likes him too.

The quidditch captain gets drunk during a party after a successful game against Slytherin and tries kissing him in their dorm. Percy pushes him away gently with his hands. 

'He's drunk, he's not thinking clearly,' he tells himself as he opens his history of magic textbook again.

A few days after Oliver finds the prefect on the grounds near the castle, reading a book. 

Percy looks up when he hears someone approaching him. 

Oliver sits next to him. The prefect stares at him for a few more seconds and his eyes turn back to the book. 

"I'm sorry," Wood finally blurts out. 

"For what exactly?" 

"For what happened on Saturday. I shouldn't have done it."

"I didn't mind," Percy said, still looking at the book. 

"You pushed me away, I clearly crossed a boundary." 

"I pushed you away because you were drunk."

Oliver stares at him. Percy knows, even if he doesn't look up to see it.

"So you...?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

They sit in awkward silence for maybe twenty seconds when Oliver speaks again. 

"Would you want to try...?" 

"What, a relationship?" 

"Yes." 

"I'd love to," Percy says, smiles at Wood and subtly grabs his hand. 

Percy comes to watch quidditch practice. He loves how passionate Oliver is about good strategy and winning the games. Even if they don't have a chance against Ravenclaw this year, he keeps the team's morale high.

Oliver kisses him for the first time when they meet under the stands after quidditch practice. It's Percy's first kiss, but he doesn't say a word about it. He isn't sure how he feels about kissing overall, but he enjoys being this close to Oliver, so even if his preferred way of showing affection is far from this, he doesn't mind Wood's warm and wet lips on his own. 

Oliver gets injured during quidditch practice and matches a lot, and even though the injuries are never all that serious, Percy is always worried and can't sleep whenever Wood is spending the night in the hospital wing. 

Oliver starts coming to the library with Percy. He enjoys watching the prefect study and he even manages to do more of his studying that way. 

He tries to comfort Percy when he's worried about his little sister and he lets him cry on his shoulder when she turns out to be one of the petrified students. Percy has to tell his parents and when he's too tired and shocked by all of this, Oliver offers to write the letter for him if he tells him what to write.

When the holidays come, they agree to write to each other and at least go shopping together in the Diagon Alley - Percy knows Oliver has a busy summer planned ahead and Oliver is well aware of the Weasleys' financial situation and he wouldn't want to make Percy use any more floo powder than necessary. They exchange some short letters and end up meeting twice before going to Diagon Alley. 


	2. Chapter 2

Percy Weasley is seventeen when he experiences his first breakup.

It happens a month and a half into the school year. Oliver and him both agree that their responsibilities as quidditch captain and head boy respectively, as well as upcoming N.E.W.T.s, are occupying too much of their time to continue this.

They still talk. They still study in the library together. Percy still cares too much. Oliver still gives him warm smiles even when they just pass each other in the corridors.

Percy can't help his excitement when they win their first house cup in years, though his happiness might have more to do with the fact that Oliver is so proud of his team and himself.

He heard Oliver say that he got offered a position in the Puddlemere United's reserve team. Everything seemed to work out for Wood and it gave Percy motivation to focus on the Ministry job he has always wanted, though he'd never admit that. 

... 

Percy Weasley is nineteen when he chooses the Ministry over his family. 

Oliver finds out about this, of course he does, and he can't believe it. He knows Percy from that caring, family-oriented side, always looking out for his siblings, especially his younger sister back at Hogwarts. How could this boy turn his back on his family?

They don't get to talk at all. Both of them tried keeping in touch after Hogwarts, but really, neither of them was made for writing letters. They were both too busy starting their adult lives.

Oliver isn't sure if he wants to talk to Percy at all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where do you even put commas in English, I don't know.


	3. Chapter 3

Percy Weasley is twenty one when his brother dies in the Battle of Hogwarts. He blames himself for not being there before. He cries and refuses to leave the corridor. His youngest brother and Potter take Fred's body and safely put him away to come back to later. He goes back into the battle.

There's a break, a moment of silence. He sits with his family, heartbroken, eyes red from crying. He notices a familiar posture among the people carrying the fallen wizards into the Great Hall. Oliver's here. Percy's too exhausted and embarrassed to even try to say hello. It doesn't feel like the right moment anyway. 

When the battle is over, everything is just so overwhelming. Percy can't stand the noise around him, can't stand mourning with his family, he was never one to feel comfortable around other people, especially during moments full of emotions like this one. His mother notices he's distancing himself. She takes him to the side, hugs him tighly. She asks him if he wants to talk about anything, a lot has happened, she's so happy that he's back with the family but if he needs time they will understand.

"Mum, I- I think I just need to be alone for a moment, I'm sorry," he whispers. 

She nods, tells him there's nothing to be sorry about, and that he can join them whenever he feels better. 

He watches her walk back to where the rest of the family is sitting. Even though he can't hear her, he knows she's explaining that he needs a moment to himself and he's never been more thankful.

He walks away, spends some time wandering around the Hogwarts grounds, and finally reaches a spot he never thought he'd come back to. The quidditch pitch. It was burnt down during the battle. He never played, but he came to every Gryffindor match and even had his first kiss under the stands.

He sits on the grass nearby. Everything that happened in the last almost three years goes through his mind, tears appear in his eyes, just when he thought he wasn't capable of crying anymore today.

Before he knows it, he's sobbing again. He brings his knees up to his chest, wraps his arms around them and lowers his head, hoping nobody would notice that anyone's here. 

He spends some time in that position, with tears running down his cheeks, slowly calming himself down. He suddenly hears someone's steps approaching him. The person sits down next to him. 

"I've been looking for you," a familiar voice says quietly, "you look like you need a friend." 

Percy lifts his head slightly and peeks at Oliver.

"I guess I do," he whispers, his voice cracking. 

Oliver wraps his arm around Percy's shoulders, which makes Percy a bit tense at first, but then he feels his arms loosening around his knees and suddenly he's more relaxed than he's ever been during the last three years. He puts his head on Wood's shoulder and his breathing slowly evens out.

They end up meeting at each other's flats a lot, working through their problems and traumas caused by war and just reconnecting after the last few years of silence. St Mungo's opened a therapy programme and Percy was one of the first people to try it. He convinced Oliver to give it a go too and everything seems to be better.

They talk a lot about quidditch and about new broom regulations - Percy happens to know a lot about those, being a freshly appointed Head of the Department of Magical Transportation. Oliver asks him about other laws too, and he's always surprised to find out what else from his field Wood finds interesting.

Now that Percy has a good friend and he has reconnected with his family, everything seems well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear, half of my writing time is just going through the Harry Potter wikia, looking for the right names of things and trying to get the facts and years right.


	4. Chapter 4

Percy Weasley is twenty two when he realises he still has feelings for Oliver Wood.

It's a hard realisation and he puts this thought as far away as he can. He takes extra hours at the Ministry and tells Oliver he can't make it to their weekly chat with a beer this Saturday because he's loaded with Ministry work (the fact that he didn't have to take it? Wood doesn't have to know). 

He has plenty of time to think about it and he decides he's not going to say anything or act on his feelings. 

The following week they meet at his flat and he behaves like nothing changed. Oliver doesn't have to know what's going on inside his head. 

... 

Percy Weasley is turning twenty three when he drinks a bit more than the usual one or two beers and feels a bit drunk for the first time. 

Family dinners were still painful. His twenty third birthday is on a Sunday and he knows how much his mother wanted to see everyone at the Sunday family dinner each week, especially when it was one celebrating one of her children's birthdays, but he asked her if it would be okay not celebrating his birthday like that, as he really didn't want to go through all of these emotions again, and she understood. She knew people would discuss topics he wasn't comfortable with. He just hoped his siblings wouldn't be angry about it. 

It's a Saturday evening and he's sitting on Oliver's couch, drinking his third beer and laughing at a joke Wood just made. They both laugh and when they stop, there's a moment of silence. Percy looks at the ceiling. He feels lighter than usual, though not dizzy. He falls onto the cushions. He turns his head and watches his best friend for two or three seconds and looks back at the ceiling. He really wishes October of 1993 never happened. 

"Why didn't it work out between us?" he blurts out before he thinks of it. 

Fuck. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Oliver looks at him confused. 

"Back at Hogwarts, I mean," he decides to go on with it. 

"We both didn't have the time, remember?" Oliver says faintly. 

"Yeah, right." 

There's silence again. 

"I think I'd like to make time for something like that," Percy finally admits, "with you." 

"Perce..."

Percy looks at Oliver again. 

"You never called me that after October." 

"You're drunk."

"Tipsy, at most." 

"I think I'd want that too." 

Percy smiles. 

Oliver shifts around to sit closer to him and reaches out to grab his hand.

"Good," Percy whispers as their fingers intertwine. 

"Good."

Oliver looks at the clock. 

"Happy birthday, Perce." 

Percy snuggles into his side. All is well. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate the English way of writing dialogue so much.  
> Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
